There aren’t any people around to give me money anymore. They’re all dead, every one. You might think I’m the selfish sort, or maybe just spoiled, for talking about people giving me money. But that’s not what this is about.

Like others I know, I always had a sense that someone—my folks, an in-law, or one of the grandparents—would come through with something special. You couldn’t count on it, but you just never knew if that might be the year when someone was feeling generous and wrote you a nice check, maybe a hundred dollars or a thousand, or in a very good year, ten. It had happened. And there was a vague sense that when someone close died, you might get part of the inheritance too. The parents even talked about it now and then, what would happen when they died.

It meant there was a backup plan in case you ran into trouble and couldn’t handle things on your own. It meant you could consider bigger plans, like building chimneys. It meant you could feel cherished and pampered in those moments when the rest of the world was more interested in getting all it could from you.

But now those old folks are all gone. It’s just us. I guess I really am a grown up now. It makes me kind of sad.Back

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.